Go behind the scenes with managing editor Jamie Smith Hopkins, Texas reporter Dylan Baddour and data journalist Peter Aldhous as they discuss ICN’s new investigation into how the fracking boom put an oil field in the Guadalupe River floodplain.
An epic flood a generation ago drenched areas around Texas’ Guadalupe River, showing how quickly and dangerously the region could be submerged.
Since then, Texas — with no state floodplain policy — has allowed oil companies to frack this same area, extracting fossil fuels underground in the Eagle Ford Shale. It may be, as one resident describes, “a disaster waiting to happen.”
A new investigation by Inside Climate News found that more than 500 enormous oil tanks now dot the floodplains of the Guadalupe River — tanks that could upend, spill or float away in another devastating flood.
Dylan and Peter explain how they undertook this important investigation and what it would mean if the basin floods again.Watch the videoRead the storyExplore ICN’s reporting on TexasICN Sunday Morning is now available as a podcast! Listen